The Mexican government has announced it will pursue a sweeping array of tactics to combat industrial pollution, from $4.8m in fines against a plant processing US hazardous waste to the rollout of a new industrial air-monitoring system, following investigations by the Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab, a Mexican investigative unit.
The Guardian portal reported that those stories revealed high levels of heavy-metal contamination in the neighbourhood around the factory, Zinc Nacional, in the Monterrey metropolitan area, and showed the broader extent of industrial pollution in the region, linked to Monterrey’s role in manufacturing and recycling goods for the US market.
The investigations found that facilities were releasing more toxic heavy metals into the city’s air than the totals reported in many US states, and more carbon dioxide than nearly half the world’s nations.
In an announcement last week, the government said it would establish a new atmospheric monitoring network for industry, “the first of its kind in Latin America”. It said the system would measure emissions from industry, including heavy metals.
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